George Takei is not actively involved with the Excelsior Campaign to make him the star of a future Star Trek television series. Regardless, in this exclusive interview, the actor told SPACE.com he finds the attention "incredible."

I think it's an incredible commentary on the Star Trek phenomenon. But then I really shouldn't be amazed, because the 35-year-long history of Star Trek has really been directed, shaped and formed by the Star Trek fans, not the so-called powers that be at either NBC or Paramount.

So we thought, carry on. But then the fans began this Star Trek Lives campaign, and as a result of it, ten years later we came back as a major feature film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

When that came out, it was after a huge budget overrun and schedule overruns as well. We thought -- and Paramount announced -- this would be the only Star Trek movie, because it was so costly to make. We thought, that was wonderful, we have this great punctuation to end our association with Star Trek.

And then the Star Trek fans not only went to see the movie and gave it a good base of support, but then they began this cycle of going to see it over and over again and comparing with each other the number of times that they had seen it and bragging with those who had seen it only three times, or four times. "Well, I've seen it six times, seven or eight times."

So that contributed to the explosive box office, which gave birth to the series of Star Trek movies.

Here again, the fans are taking the baton in hand. This generation of fans. They took the cue from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country -- I subtitle it "Captain Sulu to the Rescue", otherwise, Captain Kirk would not have been around (laughter) .

"The philosophy that Gene Roddenberry used in the show was 'yes, we can do that. We can find our strength in that pluralism with good leadership and notonly prevail but continue on to greater heights and face new challenges.' "
     

Well, it's on many levels, I think.

On the most surface level, it's a rip-snorting good space opera.

Then, the level underneath that -- mind you now, we're talking [in] the year 2000, and when we first went on the air it was 1966 -- I think the audience was intrigued by the technological speculation on the future because Gene Roddenberry did have the Rand Corporation as consultants to root our technology in legitimate speculation of scientists of the time.

And one of the devices we had then was that thing that we called a "communicator" that we flipped open and talked into. Well, 35 years later, it's today a necessary nuisance. Very disruptive in meetings, you know, or in the theatre.

So the speculation on the technology interested those particularly on science-oriented, technology-oriented campuses like MIT or Caltech.

A level beyond that. The stories were a metaphor. We used science fiction as a metaphor for contemporary issues of the time, whether it's political, social or environmental or cultural -- we dealt with the hippie movement of the time, the Vietnam War, the civil rights crisis and so forth -- and so people who were interested in issues, the political activists, were able to see through the story.

At the very core was a very strong positive affirmative view of the human future, saying there is strength in our pluralism. Gene Roddenberry used to say that the Starship Enterprise was a metaphor for the Starship Earth, and in our pluralism lies our salvation.

But in that pluralism also lies our potential curse, unless we have good leadership to define the common ground, and to build a team that can work in concert out of that diversity to face that common challenge.

The philosophy that Gene Roddenberry used in the show was "yes, we can do that. We can find our strength in that pluralism with good leadership and not only prevail but continue on to greater heights and face new challenges."

Other Stories of Interest

Fifth 'Trek' May Go Where We've All Boldly Been Before Sources close to Trek have told SPACE.com that Paramount TV chairman Kerry McCluggage has given thegreen light to Trek’s fifth series Star Trek: Birth of the Federation.

Take to the Streets! Don't Forget Your StarfleetUniforms! Sulu fans and foes, mark your calendars! Fandom takes to the streets April 22 in what they see as their most crucial mission yet -- saving Star Trek from itself.

The Brain Behind Excelsior Russ Haslage, founder of the International Federation of Trekkers, shares the origins of the Excelsior Campaign and his memories of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.

For all those the sense of confidence in our problem-solving capabilities, our inventive genius, our creative genius, we will prevail. I think that's a positive -- powerful -- view of the human future, and people found that very attractive.

And for all those reasons, and through the generations -- and now our audience is multi-generational as well -- we've been able to enjoy this kind of popularity.